


Teamwork

by DesertVixen



Category: Ratatouille (2007)
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-10 07:35:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27579902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertVixen/pseuds/DesertVixen
Summary: Remy reflects on what makes success possible
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11
Collections: 2020 Disney Animated Movie Exchange (DAM Exchange)





	Teamwork

**Author's Note:**

  * For [colorcoded](https://archiveofourown.org/users/colorcoded/gifts).



The bistro – La Ratatouille – was a smashing success. 

Maybe not a Michelin-starred fine dining establishment like Gusteau’s Restaurant, but the sort of place where anyone might eat. The sort of place where people stood in line when they heard there was a new specialty, but also the sort of place where people went when they needed a taste of home. People came for first dates and wedding anniversaries, they came after bad days at work and for little celebrations. Recently, one of their regulars had recently reserved the entire bistro to host their wedding reception.

All their success was due to Colette and Remy’s partnership. 

Although he had initially resented Colette for what he saw as interference, Remy had come to realize that he and Colette made a better team than Linguini and Remy. Colette understood how kitchens worked, how the basic elements of the job needed to be performed, after years of doing the basic jobs. She had fought to earn her place in Gusteau’s kitchen, but she had been the only one who came back in their hour of need. She had agreed to follow his directions, even though she clearly had doubts.

Remy respected her skills and efficiency, but he didn’t think she had ever had the luxury to simply explore flavor combinations, to play with a recipe to find a new variation that would be even better. Colette cooked the recipe as it was written – she could put out a perfect dish time after time, but it was always the same dish. 

She’d recognized that the unexpected element was one of the things that made Gusteau’s recipes successful, but Colette rarely had time to improvise on the fly. She had been too busy working to maintain her position, to prove that she deserved to be the only woman in the kitchen, to have time to take a risk.

On the other hand, Remy had come to food and cooking purely from his love of food and his sense of smell. Being a rat was a handicap, because rats were associated with disease and dirt, not fine cuisine. Cooking itself required Remy to take risks. Until he had met Linguini, had never thought he would really have the opportunity to cook for anyone besides himself.

Remy and Linguini had made a deal – Remy supplied the knowledge and Linguini supplied the hands. 

Amazingly, the deal had worked.

At least, it had worked until the night Anton Ego came to judge the rebirth of Gusteau’s restaurant. A successful night, a good review by Anton Ego would have made all the difference in the world to Gusteau’s Restaurant. Instead, the evening had ended in disaster.

In retrospect, Remy should have known that things couldn’t go on as they had been forever. He’d wanted to blame Linguini for getting tangled up with Colette emotionally, for getting a big head after it was revealed that he was actually Gusteau’s son, but Remy had been as much to blame as anyone else. He had felt slighted, and been angry, and had made a decision that he had instantly regretted. In the end, it had worked out, for one glorious night at any rate. 

That night Remy had been the chef, the rat in charge of everything.

That night, they had served the great critic, Anton Ego.

It wasn’t that Anton Ego had hated their food. 

Remy and Colette had created a ratatouille unlike any other, composed of thinly sliced vegetables layered over a rich savory tomato base, finished with a sauce that brought all the charm of the simple comfort food to haute cuisine. It had been so good it had made Ego drop his pen and devour it like a normal human being, as opposed to dissecting it like a critic. The man who had boasted that if he didn’t love the dish, he didn’t swallow, had done everything except lick the plate.

He had clearly loved it.

Not only had Ego loved the food they had made together, he had praised it in what proved to be his last column after the situation at Gusteau’s was exposed. For the first time, he had taken a risk when it came to food, and he had paid a heavy price in the loss of his prestige. 

In reality, he had been set free to “defend the new” by bankrolling La Ratatouille. All the money he had earned tearing down past chefs and dishes had gone to help set them up in business.

A week after Gusteau’s Restaurant was closed due to a vermin infestation, the four of them had met for dinner at Ego’s house to talk about bringing the new to Paris.

Linguini had inherited Gusteau’s money and recipes, even if they could not keep the restaurant alive. They were not without resources, and continuing royalties from Anyone Can Cook were unlikely to end anytime soon.

Remy brought the inspiration to the menu, the new flavors and experiments, the “something unexpected” that Gusteau had always added to the recipe.

Colette brought the skills and the practical know-how. It wasn’t just her cooking skills that were valuable, but all of the things she knew about how restaurants ran – bribing growers to bring them the best goods, for example. 

Anton Ego brought the money, and the connections. He still had some, and knew enough secrets that figures in the culinary world wanted to keep secret. That, and he understood the customer’s point of view better than the other three. Remy obviously had never eaten in a dining room. Linguini preferred tiny places on the street, while Colette was generally too busy cooking at Gusteau’s to eat anywhere else.

It was at that dinner that La Ratatouille had been born, named for its signature dish. The four of them had made a new deal, one that required all four of them to take a risk. 

It had paid off beyond their wildest dreams. In fact, the bistro was almost too successful, and Ego was beginning to make noises about looking for a place to start a new restaurant. Remy wasn’t sure how they would overcome the biggest challenge – it was a big risk to hire people when they had to keep his presence a secret – but he had faith that they could do it.

Together.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it! I had fun playing around with the concept.


End file.
